$31 billion: Startup funding falls to lowest level since 2019 – Times of India-OxBig News Network

CHENNAI: 2024 ended with private equity-venture capital (PE-VC) investments of $31.1 billion, the lowest since 2019 in India. The cumulative investments were down by 5.5% when compared with 2023, which accounted for $32.9 billion, the second lowest in the past six years. However, the number of deals exceeded 1,000, from 993 a year ago (in 2023). The PE investments compiled exclude those from the real estate sector.Dec recorded an investment of $2.2 billion, data released by research firm Venture Intelligence showed.
Nearly $9 billion of PE-VC investments comprising 165 deals was made in late stage companies that are more than 10 years old, series-G or later rounds of institutional investments. It is followed by investments in growth-PE stage companies at $6.3 billion involving 136 deals.
Growth-PE are seed to series-D investments, wherein the investments are more than $20 million and companies are less than a decade old. Brookfield’s over $2-billion deal with ATC India in Jan was the largest PE-VC investment in 2024. “2024 witnessed 74 mega deals (valued above $100 million) accounting for deals worth $20.7 billion, compared to 75 such investments worth $23.2 billion in 2023. The highlight of the year was, of course, how receptive the public markets have been to IPOs of PE-VC backed companies like Swiggy and Ola Electric,” Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence told TOI.